Opinion: Desalination and conservation are the answer to drought
If conservation alone can’t help us, there is another solution that, in combination with conservation, can make a difference: The construction of large-scale desalination plants along the Pacific coast are inevitable if we are to avert disaster. There are already 14 small-scale desalination plants on the west coast, but their production is far too little to make a meaningful contribution to potable water supply. The largest one is Poseidon’s Carlsbad plant, which produces 56,000 acre-feet of potable water per year, enough to supply about 10 percent of San Diego’s needs. Many countries get drinking water from seawater this way. The Israelis get 80 percent of their potable water needs from desalination plants, and Saudi Arabia has desalinated seawater for many years. U.S. Navy ships and submarines supply sailors with water for drinking and bathing from “stills” installed on-board.
-Written by Ron Aryel, a pediatrician and property owner in Reno.